Lit The Naboo Elder race identified: Tatooine's Legacy and the Dai Bendu connection!

Now I found some obscure lore connections that are mindblowing:

The Naboo "Elder race" that the giant statues in the plains depict worshipped by the Gungans as their gods is actually a species we all know.

Their depiction is quite human, but with slit eyes that are remniscient of Neimoidian/Duro reptilian eyes. Wookieepedia says the eyes are closed in meditation, defining the slit as closed lids. Okay, did not expect that. Well, anyway the giant statue heads were first designed not for Naboo but Tatooine as this concept art with an Eopie rider in the sand shows:

Aside being mostly used on Naboo, Episode 1 Racer also shows an idol worshipped by the Order of the Dai Bendu Monks in their look on Ando Prime. This ancient species thus got around the galaxy quite some. The lore established already that they are not native to Naboo but arrived there and were driven off by Gungans in 100BBY (The New Essential Guide to Aliens) whereas the Essential Atlas places their civilisations end at 5032BBY rather. Both dates are interesting yet may be far from the actual truth.

If these ancients depict the distant past of Tatooine as well, they are tied to the Kumumgah species most likely, the official precursor to both Jawas and Ghorfas/Tusken. Looking at the Kumumgah, one can see some resemblance to the Elder heads and the large eyes and downpulled nose indeed:



Thus, are the Elders of Naboo the Kumumgah, back when still a spacefaring civilisation before the Rakata took them down hard? Were they designed as this even, given their Tatooine inception? And what is the Kumumgah/Elders connection to the Dai Bendu given they knew the Force, are depicted meditating often and Dai Bendu worshipped them in idol form as well? Are the Kumumgah/Elders more influential than we thought and did spread the Force, their cult version of it, or even the Dai Bendu order across the galaxy? We knew the order predates the Rakatan demise and was brought to Tython as well, so the Kumumgah might have worked with it back then or been essential in its foundation! The Kumumgah also resemble the Talid species of Ando Prime enough to establish a hypothetical relation between the species (Though some depictions vary and give the Talid multiple noses, some only have one like the Kumumgah).





What do you think?


PS: Add on 1) The Rakata Gungan connection

The Gungans recalling the Elder race and battling it (first 100BBY then moved to 5032BBY but mostlikely much older before 25000 BBY and before the Kumumgah got destroyed by the Rakatsa!) may actually have further implications now the species is revealed.

Gungans recall both, fighting them AND that they may depict their gods which is why they rever them as a holy site. So, if the Gungans once fought "their gods", and apparently won driving them off, that must have been before the Rakata.
What if the fight did not end on Naboo though, and the Gungans went to take the war to space and the Kumumgah home of Tatooine? We know Gungans are highly technological given their underwater technology and their space colonies on the moons. They are spacefaring, even if reclusive as a species!

Supernatural Encounters by Joe Bongiorno draws a connection between the Rakata and Gungan species as related. While the work itself is controversial amongst fans and the looks of stalk-eyes on both species is quite different, evolution can do a lot to change looks, so it is possible. Could it be that the Gungans are devolved from Rakatsa? Or that Rakata are related to Gungans? That everyone has to decide for him/herself. I am myself not certain on that front.

But the Kumumgah/Elder connection to the Gungans would be bittersweet, if the above is true. As in Legends history the Kwa found and taught the Rakata species on Lehon the Force before the Celestials enslaved them as their "Builders", the Elders/Kumumgah came to Naboo and (depicted meditating, with a third symbolic spiritual eye, and their ties to the Dai Bendu as well as, spreading and teaching the Force), did the very same to the Gungans, as well as elsewhere to the Thalid species Dai Bendu of Ando Prime.

So, were the Gungan related to Rakata or did they even exist yet back then? Is their cultural memory of gods and fighting them related to their precursors, Naboo based Rakata, doing that before the devolution? Or do Rakatsa and Gungans exist paralell and as the Kwa unleashed the Rakata, the Kumumgah riled up the Gungans and where is the synthesis? Did Gungans and Rakata find a joint enemy in the Kumumgah?

Food for thought!

 

Images are broken.

 

Interesting idea.

Certainly the official dates seem to have been far too recent - in particular by 100bby Naboo was part of the republic and so the elders would have been noticed and recorded rather than mysterious. 5,000 bby works better, but the republic was pretty expansive by then so I am not sure how they could have operated in the mid rim as a spacefaring power without running into the republic, unless their area of influence was fairly small.

 

Bringing this topic back up as I found new evidence supporting this: Aside the unused concept art on Tatooine, we have confirmation from giant headstatues on Tatooine actually, yet badly weathered due to the climate. The TPM section of Complete Locations (old edition) said so... and the new one I got early that is out in a few weeks, still says so. Maybe in distance and background some of these made it into the movie after all, if the book claims that sometimes in desert one can see stones looking almost like giant faces.